ISI

Inter-Services Intelligence, more commonly known as ISI, is the premier intelligence service of Pakistan. Other counterparts include the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI). ISI provides state security to the country, and was involved in aiding the Mujahideen of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and the Taliban against the Northern Alliance in the 1990s. It is widely speculated that ISI backs the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, and it was revealed that the ISI sheltered Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad until his death in 2011.

History
The ISI was founded in 1948 by Australian general Robert Cawthome, who served as director of ISI from 1948 to 1959 under the Pakistani government. They shared military intelligence between the three branches of the Pakistani Army, and are also known to conduct espionage, and played a major role in the collecting of statistics during the wars with India.

In the 1980s, however, the ISI played a role in other politics when they assisted the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union and the communist Afghan government. In the 1990s, after the communists were ousted, ISI supported the Taliban faction of the mujahideen against the Northern Alliance faction in hopes of establishing a Pashtun state friendly to them. In 1996, the Taliban founded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and allied with Pakistan.

Pakistan was renowned for its support of some terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda (despite their bombings of their lands) and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and they sheltered the Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, only one mile from the Pakistani main military academy. They continue to support LeT with intelligence and protection, and in the later 2010s they supported the Cordis Die movement. The ISI gave protection to Raul Menendez in Karachi in 2025, and many ISI troops were left dead in a shootout with the CIA when the CIA followed Menendez.